EoBERTOX. — Milk as a Vcliiclc of Disea.<ie. 583 



especially that form whicli attacks the digestive organs of 

 children. 



Professor Bang, of Copenhagen, by giving milk from tuber- 

 culous cows to pigs and rabbits has caused tuberculosis in 

 them. Cream and buttermilk and butter made from the saine 

 milk showed the same infectivity. 



An unintentional experiment was made in the following 

 instance : A herd of valuable cows was found to contain 

 several that were tuberculous. The owner withdrew their 

 milk from sale, but, considering it would be a pity to waste so 

 much of what he thought, at any rate, good feed for pigs, it 

 was given fresh from the cow to the pigs. The result was that 

 almost without exception the pigs became affected, and had to 

 be slaughtered. 



Some light, it is thought, has been thrown on the question 

 by the fact that members of the Jewish religion, in commu- 

 nities where the meat eaten by them is subject to rigorous 

 examination, and rejected unless the carcase is thoroughly 

 sound, are much less subject to tuberculosis than other people 

 in the same districts. In Melbourne and Sydney, according 

 to Dr. McLaurin, there was during three years only one death 

 •from tuberculosis of the lungs among the Jews of these cities, 

 while, if they had been affected in the same proportion as the 

 rest of the population, thirteen or fourteen would have suc- 

 cumbed. 



In many towns in Britain a considerable portion of tlie milk- 

 supply is provided by stall-fed cows, which are especially 

 liable to tuberculosis on account of their unnatural confine- 

 ment in the stalls, the generally unhealthy nature of their sur- 

 roundings, and the exhaustion resulting from long-continued 

 lactation. When diseased, these cows, being no longer fit for 

 dairy jDurposes, are sent to the slaughterhouses, and their 

 flesh utilized for food. So, too, cattle from other sources 

 similc\rly affected. In the last stages of tuberculosis these 

 cattle are known as "wasters," from the most prominent 

 symptom of their disease, or as " mincers," from their ulti- 

 mate destination, they being favourite purchases of the 

 sausage-makers, whose agents in different parts of the country 

 are able to pick up such animals at comparatively cheap 

 prices. 



If, however, danger exists from the consumption of meat 

 from such animals the danger from using milk o£ tuberculous 

 cows is nmch greater. Meat is cooked, and the germs thus 

 often perish ; but milk, as a rule, is used uncooked, and still 

 more so its products, butter and cheese. It is possible by the 

 inspection of a car-case to tell if the meat is unfit for food, but 

 milk infected by the Bacillus tuberculosis requires a minute 

 microscopic examination, which, as a practical dairy test, is 



